Ratingshttp://www.adweek.com/taxonomy/term/2119/all
enHairspray Live! Doesn’t Have the Ratings Staying Power of The Wiz and Fox’s Greasehttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/hairspray-live-doesn-t-have-ratings-staying-power-wiz-and-fox-s-grease-175006
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2016_Dec/hairspray-live-hed-2016.png"> <p>
The Hairspray Live! cast declared &quot;You Can&#39;t Stop the Beat&quot; during last night&#39;s live musical, but the audience didn&#39;t necessarily agree. The ratings for the telecast were down from last year&#39;s The Wiz Live! numbers, and they lagged behind Fox&#39;s Grease: Live earlier this year.</p>
<p>
While final ratings will be out later today, in the overnights, Hairspray Live! earned a 2.3 rating among adults ages 18 to 49, and was watched by 8.9 million viewers overall. Because the telecast ended at 10:54 and those early numbers include those six additional minutes, they could be adjusted upward in the final ratings. But for now, Hairspray Live! is NBC&#39;s lowest-rated modern live musical, with numbers even lower than Peter Pan Live! two years ago.</p>
<p>
<strong>Update:</strong> In the &quot;fast official&quot; Nielsen ratings, Hairspray Live! maintained its 2.3 demo rating, though its total audience average rose to 9.0 million. Still, those numbers solidify its position as NBC&#39;s least-watched live musical.</p>
<p>
This year&#39;s ratings falloff is bad news for the sponsors who signed up for live and branded content spots during the show. Oreo Cookies enlisted Hairspray: Live Derek Hough&mdash;in character as Corny Collins&mdash;for a live spot immediately following one of Corny&#39;s biggest numbers in the show. Reddi-wip, which partnered with NBC for The Wiz Live!, returned with a taped branded content spot in which a milkman hung out backstage and interacted with the Hairspray ensemble. And Toyota ran a live spot for the 2017 Corolla patterned in the style of a &#39;60s car advertisement.</p>
<p>
NBCUniversal also used picture-in-picture during two commercial breaks, running spots from brands like Capital One, Verizon Wireless, Geico and Royal Caribbean while live, behind-the-scenes content featuring the Hairspray cast and crew played simultaneously in a smaller window.</p>
<p>
Still, NBC said the ratings represented its highest-rated in-season Wednesday night demo rating in two years. But when measured against the ratings for NBC and Fox&#39;s recent live musicals, NBC doesn&#39;t have much to be happy about. The numbers are well below Fox&#39;s first live musical, Grease: Live, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/grease-live-hit-fox-draws-122-million-viewers-169331" target="_blank">which drew 12.2 million viewers and a 4.3 rating in the 18-49 demo</a> in January.</p>
<p>
Those Grease ratings topped the 11.5 million viewers and 3.4 demo ratings <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/wiz-helps-nbc-regains-its-live-musical-ratings-mojo-168462" target="_blank">for NBC&#39;s The Wiz Live! last December</a>, which was a big rebound from NBC&#39;s lowest-rated live musical, 2014&#39;s Peter Pan Live!, with 9.21 million viewers and a 2.4 demo rating.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8q4Ydj_rcYk?rel=0" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
But none of these live musicals has come close to NBC&#39;s inaugural and most successful effort, 2013&#39;s The Sound of Music Live!, which had 18.6 million total viewers and a 4.6 rating in the demo.</p>
<p>
While NBC&#39;s previous live musicals had been restricted to New York sound stages, this year it took a page from Fox&#39;s technically ambitious, sprawling staging of Grease: Live, shifting production to the Universal Studios backlot in L.A. While the production hired the same director that worked on Grease: Live (Alex Rudizinski), it was beset by many more sound, lighting and camera miscues than Grease had.</p>
<p>
One big scheduling change that could have dented the ratings: While NBC&#39;s previous musicals aired on a Thursday night, Hairspray Live! was forced to shift to Wednesday this year after NBC landed a portion of the NFL&#39;s Thursday Night Football package this season and next.</p>
<p>
The lower ratings won&#39;t put an end to NBC&#39;s live musicals as Peter Pan Live! almost did two years ago. NBC has already locked in Jennifer Lopez to star in Bye Bye Birdie Live! next December, and ran a promo for that show last night during Hairspray Live! Separately, the network has announced plans to air a live version of Aaron Sorkin&#39;s Broadway play, A Few Good Men.</p>
TelevisionGrease LiveHairspray LiveNbcNetworksPeter Pan LiveRatingsThe Sound of Music LiveThe Wiz LiveThu, 08 Dec 2016 16:14:41 +0000175006 at http://www.adweek.comThe Trump Phenomenon Delivered Massive Ratings for Cable News Throughouthttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/trump-phenomenon-delivered-massive-ratings-cable-news-174539
A.J. Katz<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2016_Nov/trump-clinton-wrapup-hed-2016.png"> <p>
Say what you want about the outcome, but the 2016 presidential election cycle was unlike any the news media has ever experienced. As you might expect, cable news reaped significant benefits from the volatility of the race in the form of huge ratings.</p>
<p>
Fox News beat CNN in total audience on election night 2016 during the full coverage block, from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. Per Nielsen data, FNC delivered 12.2 million viewers compared to CNN&#39;s 11.2 million. Fox News&#39; viewership climbed on an hourly basis through midnight, while both CNN and MSNBC peaked at around 10 p.m. The ratings trends seem make sense considering now President-elect Donald Trump gained momentum as the night went on, while Hillary Clinton steadily lost steam. Fox News also beat CNN in the all-important 2-3 a.m. time period, when the race was called.</p>
<p>
CNN did make some ratings history in prime time, as 13.3 million total viewers tuned into the network&#39;s Election Night in America coverage. CNN was the most-watched network in prime time across both cable and broadcast, and it also beat Fox News in the news demo during the full coverage block.</p>
<p>
The fact that cable news ratings were significantly up in 2016 from previous election nights once again illustrates that people are increasingly tuning into networks that feature talent who share their beliefs.</p>
<p>
The 2016 election ratings bonanza began with Fox News&#39; presentation of the first Republican primary debate on Aug. 6, 2015. The telecast delivered <a href="http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/fox-news-has-most-watched-primary-debate-ever-24-million-tune-in/269157" target="_blank">24 million total viewers,</a>&nbsp;which at the time was a cable television record. The first GOP debate remains the most-watched nonsports program in cable television history. But the record-setting viewing figures didn&#39;t stop there. The first general election debate of 2016 between Clinton and Trump took place on Sept. 26 and became the most-watched presidential debate in U.S. television history, when&nbsp;<a href="http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/84-million-watch-first-2016-presidential-debate/305723" target="_blank">84 million viewers</a>&nbsp;tuned in across 13 Nielsen-measured English- and Spanish-language networks.</p>
<p>
Altogether, Clinton-Trump 2016 delivered the most total viewers of any U.S. presidential debate cycle in TV history. The three Clinton-Trump debates and the Mike Pence-Tim Kaine debate delivered a combined 259 million viewers, beating the previous record of 250 million who tuned into the three George H.W. Bush-Bill Clinton-Ross Perot presidential debates and the Dan Quayle-Al Gore-James Stockdale vp debate in 1992.</p>
<p>
The Republican primary debates provided multiple cable news networks with their most viewers ever. The 24 million who tuned into the first GOP debate on Fox News gave the network its most-watched telecast ever. CNN exclusively televised the second GOP debate, which in turn gave the network its most-watched telecast ever, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/22-6-million-watch-gop-debate-on-cnn/271975" target="_blank">delivering 23 million viewers</a> on Sept. 16, 2015. The <a href="http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/13-5-million-watch-gop-debate-on-fbn/277134" target="_blank">13.5 million viewers</a> who tuned into Fox Business on Nov. 10, 2015 for the fourth Republican primary debate gave the fledgling network its most-watched program ever, as well as the most-watched day in network history. &nbsp;</p>
TelevisionNewsRatingsWed, 09 Nov 2016 23:20:05 +0000174539 at http://www.adweek.comFox News Unveils Nearly $30 Million Election-Night Studiohttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/fox-news-unveils-nearly-30-million-election-night-studio-174405
Chris Ariens<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/fox-studios-3.png"> <p>
Jutting out toward Sixth Avenue in the 1973 skyscraper 1211 Avenue of the Americas is the newest and glitziest addition to Midtown Manhattan. After a year-long transformation, a former Charles Schwab branch and FedEx Kinkos store has become <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news-gallery/television/check-out-multimillion-dollar-studio-fox-built-election-night-174442" target="_blank">Fox News Channel&#39;s Studio F.</a></p>
<p>
And Tuesday night, millions of TV viewers will see what it can do.</p>
<p>
Planning for the space, which has been vacant since 2012, began last fall. And even with the tumult inside Fox News&mdash;a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former anchor Gretchen Carlson which led to the stunning resignation of network co-founder and CEO Roger Ailes&mdash;construction continued unabated with an election-night deadline looming.</p>
<p>
&quot;The thing about what happened this summer,&quot; said 20-year Fox News veteran Jay Wallace, now evp of news, &quot;We really didn&#39;t have an option to stop. The core group of us, we couldn&#39;t stop.&quot;</p>
<div class="news-article-image" style="margin: 15px 0px 15px 15px; float: right;">
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/2016_Nov/_G4A7367a.jpg" style="height: 437px; width: 651px;" /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<p class="caption">
<span class="meta-credit">Karin Kohlberg</span></p>
</div>
<p>
With a cost &quot;in the high $20 millions,&quot; according to Warren Vandeveer, svp of engineering and operations, the two-story studio includes three lucite-topped anchor desks, complete with USB ports, a movable 14-foot diameter 360-degree video chandelier, a 9-monitor cascading video wall, a circular LED floor, a news ticker and two massive LED video walls, one for each floor.</p>
<p>
The studio will also include a glass elevator, with an LED ceiling, mostly for hauling equipment to the second floor, &quot;but for people too,&quot; said Vandeveer, who admits the biggest challenge of the entire project was &quot;the moving pieces in the ceiling.&quot;</p>
<p>
&quot;Whenever you drive different canvasses graphically, you come up with different challenges,&quot; he said. Streetside Studio F has floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides, which can go from clear to opaque with the flip of a switch.</p>
<div class="news-article-image" style="margin: 15px 0px 15px 15px; float: right;">
<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/2016_Nov/_G4A7409a.jpg" style="height: 978px; width: 652px;" /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<p class="caption">
<span class="meta-credit">Karin Kohlberg</span></p>
</div>
<p>
In the highlight of its 2012 election-night coverage, anchor Megyn Kelly took a long walk from the studio to the decision desk, to confirm what polls were showing: that, despite Karl Rove&#39;s protestations, Barack Obama was headed for re-election.</p>
<p>
If there is to be a walk this year, it&#39;ll only be about 20 feet as Fox has set up its decision desk and exit polling just outside the studio&#39;s glass doors.</p>
<p>
Kelly and Bret Baier will once again anchor Fox&#39;s coverage. Kelly, with a memoir coming out next week, is also in contract negotiations about her TV future.</p>
<p>
Wallace calls Kelly &quot;vastly important&quot; to the post-Ailes Fox. &quot;Megyn&#39;s a team player. She&#39;s a star and she&#39;s a news person at heart,&quot; he said. &quot;Megyn is the center news piece, along with Bret and Shep [Smith.]&quot;</p>
<div class="news-article-image" style="margin: 15px 0px 15px 15px; float: right;">
<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/2016_Nov/_G4A7428a.jpg" style="height: 989px; width: 652px;" /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<p class="caption">
<span class="meta-credit">Karin Kohlberg</span></p>
</div>
<p>
More than 11 million viewers watched Fox News&#39; prime-time coverage on election night in 2012, the most on cable. The channel is banking on millions more this election night. Fox News, CNN and MSNBC have all benefited from the Clinton-Trump race. In October, Fox was the most-watched basic cable network, CNN was No. 1 for the first time in 15 years among younger viewers, and MSNBC had its most-watched month ever in its 20-year history. Fox, too, has been breaking records. 24 million watched the first GOP primary debate in August 2015, its most-watched show ever. It had the lion&#39;s share of viewers (11.3 million) among all TV networks for the final presidential debate last month, which was moderated by its own Chris Wallace.</p>
<p>
The channel is poised to break revenue records, too, with an estimated $2.62 billion in 2016 revenue.</p>
<p>
When the election draws to a close, the thousands of lights in Studio F will go dark as executives decide which programs will move in, likely in the new year. And there&#39;s been no shortage of jockeying.</p>
<p>
&quot;All kinds of producers and talent have been asking if they can get in here,&quot; said Wallace. &quot;We&#39;ve really just pushed back in every way, shape and form to not even start thinking about that.&quot;</p>
<p>
For now, it&#39;s all about election night, the cap of a record, yet turbulent year for the 20-year-old news channel.</p>
<p>
&quot;The good thing about this place,&quot; said Wallace, &quot;is we all pull together for the sake of Fox News.&quot;</p>
TelevisionElection 2016Fox NewsMegyn KellyNetworksNewsRatingsRoger AilesVideoSun, 06 Nov 2016 16:00:01 +0000174405 at http://www.adweek.comThe Cubs' Game 7 Win Is the Most-Watched World Series Game in 25 Yearshttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/cubs-game-7-win-looks-be-most-watched-world-series-game-25-years-174424
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2016_Nov/CUBS-WIN-WORLD-SERIES-01-2016.png"> <p>
For one week, at least, baseball is once again bigger than football: 40 million people tuned in Wednesday night to watch the Chicago Cubs win its first World Series title in 108 years.</p>
<p>
The thrilling Game 7 matchup in which the Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in 10 innings, overcoming several Cleveland rallies and a 17-minute rain delay at the end of the ninth, had 40 million viewers, according to Nielsen fast national ratings, and a 12.6 rating in the 18-49 demo.</p>
<p>
Viewership peaked with 49.9 million viewers watching between 11:30 and 11:45.</p>
<p>
It is the most-watched World Series game in 25 years&mdash;50.3 million tuned in to see the Minnesota Twins defeat the Atlanta Braves in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series&mdash;and just edges Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, when 39.1 million watched as the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the New York Yankees.</p>
<p>
Wednesday night&#39;s Game 7 is the most-watched telecast since Super Bowl 50, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/1119-million-viewers-super-bowl-50-was-no-3-most-watched-all-time-169507" target="_blank">which drew 111.9 million viewers,</a>&nbsp;in February. It beat every night of NBC&#39;s Rio Olympics coverage, which topped out when <a href="http:// http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nbcs-rio-ratings-swim-away-londons-172911" target="_blank">33.4 million watched Michael Phelps win his record-breaking 20th and 21st gold medals</a> on Tuesday, Aug. 9. And it also dwarfs <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/oscars-draws-its-smallest-18-49-year-old-audience-least-20-years-169924" target="_blank">the 34.4 million viewers for the Oscars in March.</a></p>
<p>
Fox said that the World Series ratings have propelled the network into first place in 18-49 this season (though that number will begin to erode, now that baseball has ended).</p>
<p>
Some of Fox&#39;s competitors waved the white flag last night, not wanting their original episodes to be crushed by the Game 7 audience. NBC aired Law &amp; Order: SVU and Chicago P.D. repeats, while CBS substituted a repeat of Criminal Minds but stuck with new episodes of Survivor and Code Black. The CW also broadcast new episodes Arrow and Frequency. ABC aired its live broadcast of the 50th Annual CMA Awards, which came in second for the night, with 12.75 million viewers and a 2.9 rating in the demo.</p>
<p>
The World Series has been an advertising windfall for Fox Sports, which charged more than $500,000 per Game 7 spot, according to sources. Last year&#39;s World Series, which went just five games, took in $240 million in ad revenue, according to Kantar Media.</p>
<p>
Last night&#39;s advertisers included Apple, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/apple-brings-iphone-7-game-7-springing-slot-world-series-finale-174415" target="_blank">which sprung for a spot featuring iPhone 7&#39;s stereo speakers,</a>&nbsp;as well as Xbox, Google, Ford, Chevrolet, Walmart, Target, Gillette and several movies (Assassin&#39;s Creed, Doctor Strange, Moana, Passengers, Billy Lynn&#39;s Long Halftime Walk and Why Him?). Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump also continued <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/donald-trump-and-hillary-clinton-have-been-wooing-voters-these-ads-174396" target="_blank">their last-minute national ad-spending sprees</a> with multiple spots throughout the game.</p>
<p>
Nike aired <a href="http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/heres-lovely-salute-cubs-nike-aired-after-final-out-world-series-174418" target="_blank">a salute to the Cubs in the first ad slot after the final out,</a>&nbsp;while Budweiser, which ran several in-game spots, also made a splash after the game, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/budweiser-ran-classic-80s-ad-harry-caray-right-after-world-series-ended-174419" target="_blank">re-airing a classic commercial from the 1980s featuring legendary Cubs announcer Harry Caray.</a></p>
<p>
Earlier this month, Cubs playoff games led Fox Sports 1 to record ratings. The National League Championship Series between the Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers averaged 7 million viewers, and Game 6 had 9.7 million viewers to become the most-watched telecast in network history. The week of Oct. 10, FS1 beat ESPN for the first time ever in both prime-time and total-day viewers.</p>
TelevisionChicago CubsCleveland IndiansFoxFox SportsFox Sports 1NetworksRatingsSportsWorld SeriesThu, 03 Nov 2016 16:36:18 +0000174424 at http://www.adweek.comNielsen Will Measure TV Viewing in Places Like Bars, Hotels, Gyms and the Officehttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsen-will-measure-tv-viewing-places-bars-hotels-gyms-and-office-174238
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2016_Oct/tv-bar-nielsen-hed-2016.png"> <p>
Nielsen is taking a big step today to close one of its biggest TV ratings measurement gaps: its inability to accurately account for out-of-home viewing in public places like sports bars, gyms and hotels.</p>
<p>
In April, the company is launching a new national television out-of-home measurement service using its portable people meter, or PPM, technology and panelists. Clients who subscribe to Nielsen&#39;s new service will receive ratings estimates (including C3 and C7) that combine in-home viewing&mdash;which is based on the company&#39;s national TV ratings panel&mdash;with this out-of-home viewing using its PPM panels.</p>
<p>
Nielsen said the service&mdash;which will provide ratings for live through live-plus-7 days of viewing&mdash;will launch in April, and contain data going back to January 2017. Shortly after launch, it will add data that stretches back to September.</p>
<p>
The new offering will launch as a stand-alone service, but Nielsen plans to eventually add the out-of-home data to its national ratings.</p>
<p>
The PPM device, which panelists carry with them, will allow Nielsen to measure television viewing in places like restaurants, bars, airports and waiting rooms. Nielsen will rely on data from more than 75,000 PPM panelists located in 44 local markets, which the company can use to project out-of-home viewing in more than half of the U.S. population.</p>
<p>
&quot;Measuring where consumers watch content, regardless of platform and location, is at the core of Nielsen Total Audience, and this includes out-of-home viewing,&quot; said Sara Erichson, evp, client solutions and audience insights for Nielsen. &quot;While consumers have always watched TV outside the home, that viewing has not been measured. This new measurement enables both buyers and sellers to understand the incremental reach of advertising messages.&quot;</p>
<p>
The measurement will be a boon to news and sports networks like CNN and ESPN, which have a large out-of-home audience that has never been properly measured, so it&#39;s no surprise both companies are on board with Nielsen&#39;s new service.</p>
<p>
&quot;We know that ESPN is viewed virtually anywhere there is a screen&ndash;from sports bars to gyms, hotels and the workplace,&quot; said Artie Bulgrin, svp of global research and analytics for ESPN, in a statement. &quot;While C3, C7 and beyond are useful to measuring catch-up viewing in the home, this new service gives us the ability to capture out-of-home viewing precisely as it happens, and helps us double down on the power and delivery of live sports, while transacting on new, valuable audience segments for advertisers.&quot;&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Added Howard Shimmel, chief research officer at Turner, &quot;For brands like CNN and Turner Sports with huge and valuable out-of-home audiences, we need to be able to measure consumption regardless of the platform, screen or location. In collaboration with Nielsen, we were first to market using PPM technology for custom out-of-home solutions for CNN. Nielsen&#39;s new National TV Out-of-Home Measurement Service will help us drive these capabilities forward.&quot;</p>
<p>
Nielsen has been announcing several ratings overhauls as the company works to <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsen-will-complete-its-total-audience-measurement-rollout-march-173586" target="_blank">complete its total audience measurement rollout by March.</a>&nbsp;It will finally <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsen-will-finally-stop-using-paper-tv-diaries-2018-173501" target="_blank">stop using paper TV diaries,</a>&nbsp;which are relied upon in 140 local markets, in 2018, and last month launched its <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/continuing-its-total-audience-rollout-nielsen-will-launch-digital-content-ratings-friday-173724" target="_blank">digital content ratings metric.</a></p>
TelevisionNielsenRatingstotal audience measurementMon, 24 Oct 2016 17:13:04 +0000174238 at http://www.adweek.comPresidential Debates Set Ratings Records in 2016, but Does the Format Need to Change?http://www.adweek.com/news/television/presidential-debates-set-ratings-records-2016-does-format-need-change-174205
A.J. Katz<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2016_Oct/trump-clinton-debate3-hed-2016.png"> <p>
The results are in, and 2016 delivered the most viewers of any presidential debate cycle in U.S. TV history. Wednesday&#39;s third and final debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump brought in 71.6 million viewers, making it the third-most-watched debate ever, behind only Clinton-Trump I (84 million) and Jimmy Carter-Ronald Reagan on Oct. 28, 1980 (80.6 million).</p>
<p>
The three Clinton-Trump debates and the Tim Kaine-Mike Pence vice presidential debate delivered a total of 259 million viewers, per data from Nielsen Media Research. The 1992 debate cycle held the previous record, with 250 million viewers watching the three George H. W. Bush-Bill Clinton-Ross Perot debates, and the Dan Quayle-Al Gore-James Stockdale vice presidential debate.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&quot;These presidential and vice-presidential debates were appointment television, and advertisers took advantage of the huge audiences that tuned in to watch them live,&quot; Fox News vp of eastern sales Dominick Rossi told Adweek. &quot;Many of the movie companies promoted their latest releases. Much like the Super Bowl, multiple clients launched new campaigns during these debates.&quot;</p>
<p>
Rossi also noted that advertiser feedback for Fox News has been positive.</p>
<p>
&quot;Clients were thankful that their spots were positioned so close to the start and end of the debates, thus reaching the largest audiences possible,&quot; he said. &quot;And the praise keeps pouring in for Chris Wallace for how well he moderated the final debate, which is the source of great pride for everyone in the company.&quot;</p>
<p>
More people watched the final Clinton-Trump debate on Fox News Channel than on any other network.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Interest in cable news is as high as it&#39;s ever been, and that trend showed up in debate viewership. A total of 91.7 million viewers watched the four debates across CNN, Fox News and MSNBC in 2016. That&#39;s a 10.5 percent rise from the networks&#39; 2012 total of 83 million and a 3 percent increase over 2008 (89 million).</p>
<p>
Why the improvement?</p>
<p>
&quot;Cable news wasn&#39;t quite as partisan eight or 12 years ago as it is now, and each network is bringing an opinionated, devoted audience to these debates,&quot; said Al Tompkins, senior faculty for broadcast and online at Poynter. &quot;I think that&#39;s why you have seen ratings for cable through the roof.&quot;</p>
<p>
But how was Clinton-Trump 2016 able to attract so many viewers considering all the other programming options out there?</p>
<p>
&quot;One of the major ingredients here is uncertainty and unpredictability,&quot; Tompkins said. &quot;In previous elections, you think you probably know where the race is and what the people are going to do. That&#39;s not the case here, and that makes for compelling TV.&quot;</p>
<p>
While ratings have been great, some think The Commission on Presidential Debates should make some changes to the format for 2020. &quot;They need to do away with the town-hall format,&quot; said Tompkins. &quot;Journalists like Chris Wallace can sit there and ask hard-hitting questions that matter, as opposed to asking, &#39;What do you admire in the other person?&#39; That&#39;s an interesting sound bite, but not very illuminating.&quot;</p>
<p>
Like many, Tompkins also supports doing away with a live audiences in debate halls.</p>
<p>
But there also are positives to the current debate format.</p>
<p>
&quot;They give insight into a person&#39;s character, a tiny peak into whether or not a person can hold it together when things aren&#39;t going well,&quot; Tompkins said. &quot;Regardless of how rehearsed they might be, debates have historically given us a glimpse into someone when the heat is on, and I think that&#39;s important.&quot;</p>
<p>
Whether or not debate format changes are made in 2020 remains to be seen.</p>
<p>
Even though we may never see two more polarizing and recognizable candidates again, interest and viewership of televised debates will almost certainly continue to be high. Hopefully that interest translates into people heading to the polls on Nov. 8.</p>
TelevisionNetworksRatingsSat, 22 Oct 2016 15:03:13 +0000174205 at http://www.adweek.comA CEO by the Age of 40http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ceo-age-40-173819
Chris Ariens<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/jeff-zucker-hed-2016_0.png"> <p>
Search the term &quot;wunderkind&quot; and several entries about Jeff Zucker will no doubt turn up. The ink had barely dried on Zucker&#39;s Harvard bachelor&#39;s degree when he joined NBC as an Olympics researcher ahead of the 1988 Seoul Summer Games. In 1989, he parlayed that into a gig on the Today show, and was named its youngest-ever executive producer in 1992. He was 26.</p>
<p>
&quot;Looking back on it, I can&#39;t believe they gave me the job,&quot; Zucker said. &quot;I lived and breathed every aspect of the show 24/7, and I loved every minute of it. I was young, and I made some mistakes, and doing so in the bright spotlight of media attention wasn&#39;t always easy. But I did my best to learn from them, and not make the same mistake twice.&quot;</p>
<p>
In his early 30s, two bouts of colon cancer proved to be only a minor a setback. In 2000, a year after his second diagnosis, he headed west to oversee NBC Entertainment. By 2003 he was given the reins of NBC News and cable, and by 2007 he reached the top: CEO. He was 41. Zucker&#39;s tenure at NBC lasted until 2010 after Comcast acquired NBCU. After overseeing the launch of Katie Couric&#39;s short-lived talk show, Zucker returned to his news roots and was named president of CNN Worldwide in 2012.&nbsp;</p>
<div class="news-article-image" style="float: left;">
<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/2016_Sep/donald-glover-footer-01-2016.png" /></div>
<br />
<p>
<em>This story first appeared in the October 3, 2016 issue of Adweek magazine.<br />
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Advertising & BrandingTelevisionCableCnnJeff ZuckerLook BackMagazine ContentNbcNBCUNetworksNewsprint contentRatingsTue, 04 Oct 2016 21:46:28 +0000173819 at http://www.adweek.comHere's What We Learned From the First Week of the New TV Seasonhttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/heres-what-we-learned-first-week-new-tv-season-173756
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2016_Sep/fall-tv-week1-hed-2016.png"> <p>
The first week of the 2016-17 television season is in the books, and it&#39;s been a mixed bag for the broadcast networks so far. While a few shows had big launches&mdash;This Is Us, which Tuesday night became the first freshman series to be picked up for a full season, and Designated Survivor are shaping up to be the freshman hits <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/designated-survivor-and-pitch-among-new-fall-shows-excite-media-buyers-most-173591" target="_blank">buyers were hoping they would be</a>&mdash;there&#39;s already one out-and-out disaster, and two networks already seem to be in free fall.</p>
<p>
Here are some early observations from the first week of ratings. (The CW, which doesn&#39;t launch its new shows until next week, is excluded from this look.)</p>
<p>
<strong>Scheduling still rules</strong></p>
<p>
For the first three days of the season, every new show rated at least a 2.0 in the all-important 18-49 demo. That&#39;s because the networks gave those series the very best chance to succeed, airing them either before or after their biggest shows like NBC&#39;s The Voice (which launched both The Good Place to a 2.3 rating and This Is Us to a 2.8, highest of all new shows, which prompted NBC&#39;s quick order for an full, 18-episode season); CBS&#39; NCIS (Bull, 2.2) and The Big Bang Theory (Kevin Can Wait, 2.6); ABC&#39;s Modern Family (Speechless, 2.0) and Black-ish (Designated Survivor 2.2); and Fox&#39;s Empire (Lethal Weapon, 2.2).</p>
<p>
&quot;We&#39;re back to protected time slots,&quot; said Sam Armando, lead investment director at Mediavest | Spark. &quot;The network made it a point for the shows they&#39;re high on to really protect it with something.&quot; That success validates the point broadcast schedulers made <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/meet-5-prime-time-tv-schedulers-whose-decisions-will-make-or-break-next-season-170831" target="_blank">in our April feature</a>&mdash;that even as viewing habits shift, the best way to get a new show sampled is to put it before or after a current hit. Scheduling is more important than ever.</p>
<p>
And when live-plus-3 ratings were factored in, This is Us and Designated Survivor pulled away from the freshman pack. This Is Us had a 1.4 bump (more than some new shows managed in live-plus-same day), jumping up to 4.2, and Designated Survivor added 1.5 to end up at 3.7.</p>
<p>
Shows without big lead-ins, meanwhile, withered on the vine. Fox&#39;s superb Pitch came in at a 1.1, which still managed to improve on its anemic Rosewood lead-in (0.7). And The Exorcist could only scare up a 1.0 on Friday.</p>
<p>
<strong>But Shonda trumps scheduling</strong></p>
<p>
One glaring exception to the week&#39;s scheduling success was ABC&#39;s drama Notorious, which was given the cushy Scandal time slot (that show is delayed until January to accommodate Kerry Washington&#39;s pregnancy), sandwiched between Grey&#39;s Anatomy and How to Get Away With Murder. But the TGIT audience, used to watching Shonda Rhimes-produced shows then, completely rejected Notorious, which didn&#39;t come from Rhimes and also happens to be <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news-gallery/television/designated-survivor-should-give-new-life-fourth-place-abc-fall-173474" target="_blank">one of fall&#39;s worst new shows.</a></p>
<p>
Notorious shed 56 percent of its Grey&#39;s lead-in, dropping from a 2.5 to a 1.1, which is just one-third of what Scandal did there last fall. It also brought down How to Get Away With Murder, which could only manage a 1.4 (even with its finale, but down almost 50 percent from its 2.6 last fall).</p>
<p>
That abysmal performance should trigger fall&#39;s first schedule change, as ABC will need to stop the hemorrhaging by shifting Notorious to another night if not cancelling it outright.</p>
<p>
<strong>CBS&#39; conservative strategy is paying off</strong></p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news-gallery/television/if-you-don-t-already-watch-cbs-its-new-fall-shows-give-you-little-reason-start-173503" target="_blank">Earlier this month,</a>&nbsp;I wrote of CBS&#39; new shows: &quot;I can&#39;t remember another freshman fall lineup in which all shows were likely to be so warmly embraced by that network&#39;s core audience while being completely rejected by everyone else.&quot;</p>
<p>
And that&#39;s what has happened. CBS&#39; doggedly on-brand new shows racked up scathing reviews but drew the CBS audience the network was counting on. Even MacGyver managed a 1.7 rating on Friday, CBS&#39; best demo rating of the night.</p>
<p>
<strong>ABC and Fox are in trouble, but CBS and NBC aren&#39;t out of the woods</strong></p>
<p>
The heads of all the broadcast networks <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/all-5-broadcast-network-presidents-share-their-fall-tv-playbooks-173475" target="_blank">shared their fall TV playbooks earlier this month,</a>&nbsp;but ABC and Fox are going to need some quick rewrites. Both networks hoped to gain ground on NBC and CBS this fall, but they both stumbled out of the gate, with double-digit demo drops versus the first week of the 2015-16 season. ABC averaged just a 1.3, down 24 percent from last fall, and Fox&#39;s 1.2 was a 25 percent drop-off.</p>
<p>
NBC and CBS tied at 2.5, but NBC was down 7 percent from last fall. CBS was flat, which is the new up in the linear world. But NBC does have a silver lining&mdash;it has five Thursday Night Football games coming later in the fall.</p>
<p>
<strong>Night terrors for ABC and Fox</strong></p>
<p>
A big reason for ABC and Fox&#39;s double-digit declines this season is that audiences aren&#39;t just ignoring one or two shows&mdash;they seem to have abandoned entire nights of programming altogether. Fox averaged just a 1.1 for its Tuesday lineup of New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Scream Queens, while Thursday night averaged 0.9 thanks to Rosewood.</p>
<p>
ABC&#39;s Sunday audience has also gone up in smoke. Once Upon a Time could only muster a 1.3, and Secrets &amp; Lies returned to a 1.0. Last year&#39;s hit Quantico, meanwhile, opened with a hefty 1.9 last fall; Season 2 lost almost half that audience, coming in at just a 1.0 (though that show usually has a big delayed-viewing jump).</p>
<p>
<strong>The TV tent poles are sagging</strong></p>
<p>
Football and NFL preshows accounted for five of the top 10 shows among 18- to 49-year-olds last week, but even the mighty NFL is coming back down to earth slightly this fall. Thursday Night Football actually improved on last year (up to a 6.1 from 6.0) after a drop the previous week, but Sunday Night Football continues to underdeliver. Sunday&#39;s game rated a 7.6, which was off 6 percent from the same week last fall (8.1).</p>
<p>
And The Big Bang Theory, entering its 10th season (and the last for which its cast is under contract) also has a lost a few steps. It&#39;s still the top comedy in the demo, but its 3.8 rating is down 20 percent from last fall (4.7). Empire remains the No. 1 broadcast drama in the demo, but it&#39;s not the beast it was a year ago. It tied for fourth among 18- to 49-year-olds with a 4.2, an improvement on its Season 2 finale (4.1), but down 38 percent from its Season 2 premiere.</p>
<p>
The Voice was also off from its fall 2015 debut, but only slightly, with 3.3 on Monday and 3.4 for Tuesday&#39;s broadcast, compared to 3.5 for both nights last fall.</p>
TelevisionAbcCbsDesignated SurvivorFoxNbcNetworksNotoriousRatingsThis Is UsWed, 28 Sep 2016 13:00:02 +0000173756 at http://www.adweek.comDemographics or Data: Which One Will Dominate Future Ratings Measurement?http://www.adweek.com/news/television/which-will-dominate-future-ratings-measurement-demographics-or-data-173745
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2016_Sep/future-ratings-tv-hed-2016.png"> <p>
Nielsen <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsen-will-complete-its-total-audience-measurement-rollout-march-173586" target="_blank">is rolling out its total audience measurement tool by next March,</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;the company is already looking ahead to how it&mdash;and the industry&mdash;will measure viewing habits into the next decade.</p>
<p>
Speaking at a New York Advertising Week panel about ratings measurement in 2025, Megan Clarken, Nielsen&#39;s president of product leadership, talked about the company&#39;s launch of digital content ratings on Friday, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/continuing-its-total-audience-rollout-nielsen-will-launch-digital-content-ratings-friday-173724" target="_blank">a story Adweek broke this morning.</a>&nbsp;&quot;It&#39;s very exciting for us,&quot; Clarken said. &quot;It was only dreamed about eight years ago, and here it is.&quot;<br />
<br />
Over the next eight or so years, Nielsen is looking to attribute devices to people and provide better targeting capabilities. The company is rolling out a new meter across its various panels. (Earlier this month, it said it will finally <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsen-will-finally-stop-using-paper-tv-diaries-2018-173501" target="_blank">phase out paper TV ratings diaries,</a>&nbsp;which are still used in 140 local markets, &quot;in early 2018.&quot;) The new nanometers are twice the size of a mobile phone, and one-fourth the size of the current meters, said Clarken. The company is also working on revamping the people meters and is testing having its panelists wear Fitbit-like devices &quot;to complement and eventually replace the device they use today.&quot;</p>
<p>
The company will be keeping an eye on the behavior of millennials and whether their viewing habits change as they get older. Clarken said millennials will be more likely to watch more live TV as they get older, follow trends, watch more VOD than their 35-49 counterparts and use more connected TV devices. They&#39;ll play less video games but will participate in more augmented reality like Pokemon Go.</p>
<p>
During her talk, Clarken discussed the future of brand advertising and targeted, or addressable, advertising, and said Nielsen believes age and gender demographics will continue to be the core base for both. Age and gender is the only demographic break with &quot;a known universe,&quot; said Clarken. &quot;We know the size of it, so we can report on market share.&quot;</p>
<p>
However, she said, representative panels (i.e., exactly what Nielsen does) will be necessary to take the biases out of &quot;big data&quot; like Facebook, which doesn&#39;t provide info for users under 13 or account for shared devices. &quot;Because of fragmentation and this proliferation of channels and platforms, we will always need big data to come in and help with the measurement, but it will always need to be weighted and balanced by a representative sample,&quot; Clarken said.</p>
<p>
But some of the panelists who spoke after Clarken&#39;s presentation disagreed. &quot;It scares me to think about the year 2025, and we&#39;re still transacting TV using age/sex demographics,&quot; said Howard Shimmel, chief research officer for Turner Broadcasting. &quot;If we do this, we&#39;re going to leave lots of ROI for [advertisers] untapped because we&#39;re not doing things like targeting.&quot; Instead, he said, foundational metrics should take a backseat to driving the most ROI.</p>
<p>
Lyle Schwartz, managing partner for GroupM, said that&#39;s already how he and his clients operate. &quot;We don&#39;t plan on demographics,&quot; he said, noting that he focuses on underlying data like ROI, which GroupM&#39;s research team generates in-house. &quot;That&#39;s the information I have to negotiate off of,&quot; said Schwartz, adding that &quot;if the industry can&#39;t agree on metrics, fine&mdash;we will do it ourselves.&quot;</p>
<p>
Schwartz argued that &quot;you can&#39;t lose the dynamic of each medium,&quot; even with apples-to-apples metrics because radio, TV and magazines each bring something different and valuable to the type for clients. &quot;We work with our clients to make sure that we&#39;re putting their money in the right place at the right time, with the right message, which ironically was something written in 1958,&quot; he said. &quot;The only thing different now is that we have much more opportunities to do it.&quot;</p>
<p>
The panelists also discussed ways to drive down the ad-blocking number for video, which some suggested is driven by overtargeted and forced video streams.</p>
<p>
&quot;We literally don&#39;t serve video content to people that have a video ad blocker on. It&#39;s that simple. We&#39;ll take that hit,&quot; said Marc DeBevoise, president and COO, CBS Interactive. &quot;We&#39;re putting content out there that we believe is good enough that you won&#39;t want to block the ad that you&#39;ll want the content enough.&quot;</p>
<p>
David Levy, who earlier today was named evp of nonlinear revenue for Fox Networks Group, said that while it&#39;s important to measure attention, that can&#39;t be a single metric &quot;or we go to the lowest common denominator.&quot; He later added, &quot;If we actually believe that we can make more for delivering better attention, we will, and that&#39;s where we need to get to to reduce that ad-blocking number&quot;</p>
<p>
Strangely, even though the ratings measurement panel included a Facebook exec (Brad Smallwood, vp of measurement science), no mention was made of last week&#39;s news that for two years, Facebook had given ad agencies a viewing metric that <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/facebook-gave-ad-agencies-inflated-video-viewing-metric-2-years-173676" target="_blank">was inflated by as much as 80 percent.</a> On Monday, however, Facebook&#39;s vp of global marketing solutions, Carolyn Everson, told an Advertising Week audience that the company regretted its actions, and that <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/facebook-regrets-not-going-public-sooner-video-metrics-miscalculations-173723" target="_blank">&quot;we will need to do better.&quot;</a></p>
TelevisionAdvertising WeekCabledigital content ratingsMegan ClarkenNetworksNielsenRatingstotal audience measurementVideoTue, 27 Sep 2016 19:09:19 +0000173745 at http://www.adweek.comContinuing Its Total Audience Rollout, Nielsen Will Launch Digital Content Ratings on Friday http://www.adweek.com/news/television/continuing-its-total-audience-rollout-nielsen-will-launch-digital-content-ratings-friday-173724
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2016_Sep/buzzfeed-freeform-aol-hed-2016.png"> <p>
Another piece of Nielsen&#39;s total audience measurement rollout has fallen into place, as the company will launch its new digital content ratings metric this week. The ratings metric measures audiences across desktop and mobile devices for all content, including video, audio and text.</p>
<p>
Digital content ratings, which is a core component of the company&#39;s <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/first-look-nielsen-s-total-audience-measurement-and-how-it-will-change-industry-167661" target="_blank">total audience measurement tool,</a> will be available for all Nielsen clients beginning on Friday, the company announced this morning. The syndicated release provides a daily measure of audiences with the same apples-to-apples metrics used for linear ratings.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The syndicated clients involved with digital content ratings include BuzzFeed, Vice, Mashable, PopSugar, Discovery, Freeform, Kik, AOL, A&amp;E and Tastemade.</p>
<p>
Last week, Nielsen solidified plans for its total audience measurement rollout, announcing that <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsen-will-complete-its-total-audience-measurement-rollout-march-173586" target="_blank">its total content ratings will be available to all Nielsen clients,</a> including all networks, agencies, analysts and press, by March 1. But the digital content ratings will be available a full five months earlier than that.</p>
<p>
The company&#39;s digital content ratings differ from the total content ratings, which are video-focused and contain &quot;de-duplicated&quot; numbers, revealing the total unduplicated audience by removing multiple viewers by the same person on different platforms. &quot;The core audience metrics, which are used as currency for settlement and ad planning, are part of total content ratings,&quot; said David Wong, svp of product leadership for Nielsen.</p>
<p>
So while clients could add the linear ratings and digital content ratings together to approximate a program&#39;s total content rating, it won&#39;t be accurate, said Wong.</p>
<p>
The digital content ratings are similar to Nielsen&#39;s digital ad ratings, which are not a syndicated product because they are campaign-specific and contain proprietary information about the brands involved. Nielsen said its digital content ratings will help digital and television publishers monetize video launches, live coverage and other moments, while agencies and advertisers can incorporate that data into their media plans.</p>
<p>
For each brand that Nielsen measures for digital content ratings, it offers two sets of metrics. One is an overall view of time spent, reach and audiences that view all content (video, audio and text) on that particular brand overall, and the other is a deeper dive into video metrics, like amount of time spent and average audience. Publishers can decide whether to allow Nielsen to release information on individual videos, which &quot;most of the longform folks&quot; will do,&quot; said Wong.</p>
<p>
The early rollout &quot;provides our clients time in the fall to get used to it, to start to use it publicly, and to have data which is fully consistent with the digital measurements in full content ratings over the next months,&quot; which will help them get up to speed as total content ratings are rolled out early next year, said Wong.</p>
<p>
Until now, the only clients with access to these metrics were the 50-plus participating TV and digital media brands that have been involved in the evaluation process of total audience measurement, as well as companies with digital-only content like BuzzFeed and Mashable.</p>
<p>
&quot;Delivering syndicated digital content ratings is a tremendous milestone, and provides publishers, agencies and advertisers powerful insights that help them understand the full value of their content across digital platforms,&quot; said Megan Clarken, Nielsen&#39;s president of product leadership, in a statement.</p>
<p>
Nielsen&#39;s digital content ratings announcement included statements from several of the syndicated clients. &quot;Chat is at the core of the smartphone era, and we&#39;re leading the way in showing brands what&#39;s possible with this new medium,&quot; said Josh Jacobs, president of Kik Services at Kik. &quot;We&#39;re looking forward to integrating Nielsen digital content ratings to demonstrate the value and impact of engaging teens through chat.&quot;</p>
<p>
Added Edwin Wong, vp, research and insights, BuzzFeed, &quot;We&#39;re very excited about the potential of Nielsen&#39;s digital content and advertising ratings and the future of more robust third party measurement features that cover the breadth of BuzzFeed&#39;s cross-platform content: from fans watching Tasty videos on Facebook mobile, to the latest BuzzFeed News investigation on Google&#39;s AMP.&quot;</p>
TelevisionBuzzfeeddigital content ratingsMashableMobileNielsenPopSugarRatingstotal audience measurementTotal Content RatingsVideoTue, 27 Sep 2016 13:00:01 +0000173724 at http://www.adweek.comThis Year's Presidential Debates Could Bring In the Biggest Audiences Everhttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/presidential-debates-could-bring-largest-audience-ever-173640
Alissa Krinsky<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2016_Sep/nets-prep-debate-hed-2016.png"> <p>
The three 2016 presidential debates and the one vice presidential debate will air on a dozen TV networks this year. They&#39;re 90 minutes apiece, and all of them are commercial-free.</p>
<p>
But that sound you&#39;re hearing isn&#39;t ad sales revenue going down the drain&mdash;it&#39;s more like a slot machine during a casino paying out. For the cable and broadcast networks, the much-anticipated Clinton-Trump matchups, which are expected to be dramatic, may end up in the ratings record books, and with ad revenue to match.</p>
<p>
&quot;It&#39;s live programming. It&#39;s a big rating. It&#39;s watercooler conversation. It&#39;s everything advertisers are looking for these days,&quot; said Paul Rittenberg, evp of advertising sales for Fox News Channel. &quot;Our version of the Super Bowl&mdash;or at least the playoffs.&quot;</p>
<p>
If the strong debate ratings <a href="http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/11-85-million-watch-cnn-republican-debate/287064" target="_blank">during the primaries</a> are any indication, the general election debates could haul in the largest audiences ever. Rittenberg is estimating that 80 million Americans will watch Monday&#39;s first Clinton-Trump debate. <a href="http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/how-many-people-will-watch-the-first-debate/305385" target="_blank">A recent poll</a>&nbsp;pegged that number in excess of 100 million. That&#39;s Super Bowl territory.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
According to Nielsen, the last time a presidential debate topped 80 million viewers was a 1980 Jimmy Carter-Ronald Reagan face-off.</p>
<p>
Rittenberg is expecting a &quot;multimillion-dollar revenue night&quot; for Fox News, with its debate night coverage anchored by Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier. The network is charging &quot;a substantial premium for the break just before the debate, and the most substantial premium for the break just after,&quot; he said.</p>
<p>
And because the debates are produced by the Commission on Presidential Debates, &quot;there are no particular [production] costs involved,&quot; Rittenberg added. &quot;It&#39;s a pool feed.&quot;&nbsp;</p>
<p>
His bullish sentiments are echoed by cable and broadcast industry colleagues. A Turner spokesperson said CNN is &quot;sold out&quot; for the entire debate night Monday (defined as 7 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.) and &quot;at sell-out levels with limited available slots&quot; for the remaining two debates on Oct. 9 and Oct. 19.</p>
<p>
CBS, too, is virtually sold out for its pre- and post-debate coverage, according to a source close to the network. Ad rates are said to be significantly higher than in 2012, with a 30-second spot approaching $225,000.</p>
<p>
TV ratings are expected to be strong despite the widest array, to date, of online viewing options, with dozens of websites from The Huffington Post to Politico to social streaming choices like Twitter and Facebook.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The debates are also drawing a broader range of advertisers compared to 2012. CNN said it is &quot;attracting our most diverse set of advertising categories.&quot;</p>
<p>
Ditto at CBS and FNC, where &quot;there&#39;s substantially more demand from [advertisers] who didn&#39;t used to buy a lot of news; we even have a beer [company],&quot; said an excited Rittenberg.</p>
<p>
&quot;If the ratings will be good, advertisers want to be a part of it,&quot; he said.</p>
TelevisionCableDonald TrumpElection 2016Hillary ClintonNewsRatingsThu, 22 Sep 2016 12:00:01 +0000173640 at http://www.adweek.comNielsen Will Complete Its Total Audience Measurement Rollout by Marchhttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsen-will-complete-its-total-audience-measurement-rollout-march-173586
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2015_Oct/total-audience-hed-2015.png"> <p>
Almost a year after taking the wraps off its multiplatform total audience measurement tool, Nielsen said it has set a release schedule and will complete the rollout of its total content ratings, or TCR, by March 1.</p>
<p>
Currently, the company has given access to the data&mdash;which includes apples-to-apples measurement of all viewing across linear TV, DVR, VOD, connected TV devices (Roku, Apple TV and Xbox), mobile, PC and tablets&mdash;to the 50-plus participating TV and digital media brands that have been involved in the evaluation process. Until Aug. 1, those networks and brands only had access to their own data and no one else&#39;s.</p>
<p>
Through the end of this year, Nielsen will make &quot;select data&quot; available to agencies and the media. On Jan. 1, the full total content ratings data will also become available to agencies, while the media will continue to only receive the select data.</p>
<p>
Finally, on March 1, the metrics will be available to all Nielsen clients, including all networks, analysts and press. Until then, clients who receive access to the full data will only be able to use it for &quot;internal&quot; purposes, said Nielsen, as they evaluate the data before the full release in March.</p>
<p>
It was almost a year ago that Nielsen gave Adweek a <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/first-look-nielsen-s-total-audience-measurement-and-how-it-will-change-industry-167661e" target="_blank">first look at its total audience measurement plans.</a>&nbsp;At the time, executives had hoped to roll it out in time for this year&#39;s upfront presentations, but by March, the company had <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsens-new-coo-explains-why-total-audience-measurement-taking-so-long-170260" target="_blank">pushed back the timetable.</a></p>
<p>
The delay, said Steve Hasker, global president and COO, was caused by &quot;the reality of working through the data with clients, getting them comfortable with the new data sets that they&#39;re seeing.&quot;</p>
<p>
&quot;That process &hellip; I don&#39;t know that we underestimated it, but we can never spend enough time with our clients analyzing that data, helping them understand it and figure out what sort of decisions it&#39;s going to lead to,&quot; Hasker said.</p>
<p>
While many networks and buyers have criticized Nielsen&#39;s foot dragging when it came to deploying total audience measurement over the past year, today&#39;s announcement included statements of support from execs at several participating networks, including CBS, AMC Networks, A+E Networks, ESPN, Univision, Fox and ABC.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&quot;CBS&#39;s content is being consumed across multiple platforms and devices,&quot; said David Poltrack, chief research officer of CBS Corp. and president of CBS Vision. &quot;We have been working closely with Nielsen on total audience since last year, and we are pleased with the results thus far. We are deep in the process of evaluating the data and considering its impact on the market, our programming and our advertising partners. We are in support of the syndication schedule for the data, and we are looking forward to working with Nielsen to further expand measurement across even more platforms in the near future.&quot;</p>
<p>
Lisa Heimann, vp of multiplatform research for Disney/ABC, added: &quot;As Nielsen produces total content ratings as part of its total audience service, necessary time is needed for its clients and their partners to review and understand the changes in both how metrics are calculated versus existing Nielsen measurement as well as time to evaluate the inclusion of viewing on platforms not currently measured. We support a regimented schedule in the evaluation of this new data to ensure the integrity of the marketplace represented.&quot;</p>
<p>
Nielsen set its total audience measurement plans just days after the company made another long-awaited move, announcing that <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsen-will-finally-stop-using-paper-tv-diaries-2018-173501" target="_blank">it will finally phase out paper TV ratings diaries,</a>&nbsp;which are still used in 140 local markets, &quot;in early 2018.&quot;</p>
TelevisionCableNetworksNielsenRatingstotal audience measurementTotal Content RatingsVideoMon, 19 Sep 2016 18:27:54 +0000173586 at http://www.adweek.comTwitter’s First NFL Livestream Drew an Average Digital Audience of Just 314,000 a Minutehttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/twitter-s-first-nfl-livestream-drew-average-digital-audience-just-314000-minute-173573
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2016_Sep/Ryan-Fitzpatrick-jets-twitter-01-2016.png"> <p>
CBS&#39;s first Thursday Night Football game of the season drew 28 percent fewer viewers than last season&#39;s inaugural prime-time game on the network. But don&#39;t blame Twitter.</p>
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While the New York Jets-Buffalo Bills matchup was also the first of <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/twitter-will-stream-10-thursday-night-football-games-next-season-170621" target="_blank">10 Thursday Night Football games that to be livestreamed on Twitter</a> this season, the game had an average digital audience of 314,000 per minute, including viewers streaming on Twitter, NFL Mobile from Verizon, Watch NFL Network and authenticated users on CBS Digital platforms. On Twitter alone, the game averaged 243,000 viewers per minute, with each viewer watching an average of 22 minutes.</p>
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The game averaged 15.4 million viewers on CBS and NFL Network&mdash;49 times the size of the digital audience&mdash;and a 5.4 rating among viewers ages 18 to 49. Those numbers were down 28 percent in the demo and 27 percent in total viewers compared with last year&#39;s Thursday Night Football kickoff between the Denver Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs (21.18 million total viewers, 7.5 demo rating). The audience drop came even though Thursday night&#39;s game remained competitive until the very last play, with the Jets winning, 37-31.</p>
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Prime-time NFL ratings, which have been the last remaining reliable source of robust ratings, have been down across the board this season. Last Thursday&#39;s NFL kickoff game&mdash;which technically is part of NBC&#39;s Sunday Night Football package&mdash;was watched by 25.2 million viewers (and got a 9.4 demo rating), off around 9 percent from last fall.</p>
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And the Sunday Night Football kickoff averaged 23.1 million viewers (and an 8.4 rating among 18- to 49-year-olds), down 16 percent in audience and 18 percent in the demo from last fall&#39;s numbers.</p>
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Twitter, which <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/twitter-will-stream-10-thursday-night-football-games-next-season-170621" target="_blank">paid $10 million for streaming rights</a> to those NFL games, was responsible for selling all digital ad inventory and was looking <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/heres-how-twitter-aims-sell-50-million-ads-nfl-livestreams-172193" target="_blank">to sell $50 million in ads.</a>&nbsp;Thursday night&#39;s digital ad load, which varied slightly on Twitter&#39;s Apple TV, included a variety of categories, such as cellular (Verizon Wireless), theatrical (The Magnificent Seven and Jack Reacher: Never Look Back), financial (Bank of America), retail (Walmart) and restaurant (Subway).</p>
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While many users reported the streaming experience was smooth, at least some tuned in just for the novelty and are likely to resume watching it on regular TV in subsequent weeks.</p>
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Last October, Yahoo&#39;s livestream of a Buffalo Bills-Jacksonville Jaguars game from London&mdash;the first game available exclusively on an internet-based platform, aside from the teams&#39; local markets&mdash;<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/3-takeaways-yahoos-first-global-livestream-nfl-game-167766" target="_blank">averaged 2.36 million viewers per minute.</a></p>
TelevisionCbsNetworksNflNFL NetworkRatingsSportsThursday Night FootballTwitterTwitterFri, 16 Sep 2016 22:19:33 +0000173573 at http://www.adweek.comNielsen Will Finally Stop Using Paper TV Diaries in 2018http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsen-will-finally-stop-using-paper-tv-diaries-2018-173501
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2016_Sep/nielsen-tv-diary-hed-2016.png"> <p>
RIP, Nielsen paper TV diaries. Eventually.</p>
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Nielsen is finally phasing out its antiquated paper TV diary ratings system, which it still uses to record ratings in 140 local markets.</p>
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The company said today that by mid-2017, it will provide electronic measurement in its local TV ratings across all 210 of its designated market areas (DMAs).</p>
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The company will integrate return path data for set-top boxes and other electronic measurement&mdash;the same method it uses for its national ratings&mdash;which will allow it to do away with the paper TV diaries for good, &quot;in early 2018.&quot;</p>
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Nielsen had continued to rely on paper diaries&mdash;in which Nielsen households record their television viewing by hand&mdash;even as it rolls out its&nbsp;<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsens-new-coo-explains-why-total-audience-measurement-taking-so-long-170260" target="_blank">total audience measurement</a> tool, which it hopes will become the new industry standard for multiplatform ratings measurement.</p>
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A <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/business/media/nielsen-playing-catch-up-as-tv-viewing-habits-change-and-digital-rivals-spring-up.html?_r=0" target="_blank">February New York Times story</a> about Nielsen highlighted the continued existence of paper diaries, which led to another round of criticism about the company&#39;s inability to keep up with the drastic shift in television viewing habits.</p>
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In March, Steve Hasker, Nielsen&#39;s global president and COO, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsens-new-coo-explains-why-total-audience-measurement-taking-so-long-170260" target="_blank">told Adweek</a> that the company was in the process of phasing out the paper diaries by 2017, though he noted that &quot;we only use paper diaries to measure well less than 5 percent of TV advertising. Nobody argues in principal that we should move beyond the diaries, and we&#39;ve been looking to do so since I&#39;ve been around in the last five years.&quot;</p>
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Hasker said at the time that larger networks were at least partially to blame in the delay to moving away from paper diaries. &quot;The diary tends to favor the larger media properties because respondents, when they fill out a diary, are more likely to record their significant viewing time and less likely to record their less significant viewing time,&quot; he said. &quot;As a result, the larger networks benefit from the diaries, and that creates a resistance from those clients to move beyond the diaries.&quot;</p>
TelevisionCableNetworksNielsenRatingsSteve Haskertotal audience measurementWed, 14 Sep 2016 18:50:59 +0000173501 at http://www.adweek.comNielsen Has Increased Its U.S. TV Homes Estimate for the First Time in 2 Yearshttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsen-has-increased-its-us-tv-homes-estimate-first-time-2-years-173157
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2016_Aug/family-tv-homes-hed-2016.png"> <p>
Audiences may no longer watch television the same way they did even a few years ago, but more U.S. households now have access to TV content than ever before, according to Nielsen.</p>
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The company announced today that it estimates there will be 118.4 million TV homes in the U.S. for the 2016-17 season, which kicks off on Monday, Sept. 19. That&#39;s a 2 million increase from the 116.4 million estimate that Nielsen used during the past two television seasons.</p>
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Nielsen also estimates that 301.7 million people in those U.S. TV households are 2 and older, which is a 1.6 percent jump over last year&#39;s 296.8 million figure.</p>
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To arrive at its national television household universe estimates, Nielsen combines U.S. Census Bureau data with its own national TV panel, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/here-are-answers-all-your-questions-about-nielsens-total-audience-measurement-167663" target="_blank">which the company doubled in January</a> from 20,000 to 40,000 households, for a total of 100,000 viewers.</p>
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Additionally, Nielsen found that 96 percent of U.S. homes now have televisions that receive traditional TV signals via broadcast, cable, satellite or a broadband internet connection. The number is up 0.8 percent from last year&#39;s estimate of 95.2 percent (which had declined from 96.1 percent a year earlier, in 2014.)</p>
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The company defines TV households as those homes that have at least one working TV or monitor that can deliver video via an antenna, cable set top box, satellite receiver and/or a broadband connection. This would account for cord-cutters who may no longer subscribe to cable but still use their TV or monitor to access subscription services like Netflix, HBO Now, Hulu or Sling TV.</p>
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These new household estimates seem to confirm what networks like CBS have long maintained: <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/dont-panic-says-cbs-more-people-are-watching-tv-now-decade-ago-166313" target="_blank">More people are watching TV now than a decade ago</a>, even if they are no longer doing so the same way they used to.</p>
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Alan Wurtzel, NBCUniversal&#39;s president of research and media development, noted earlier this month that <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/advertisers-beware-audiences-are-taking-longer-ever-watch-tv-shows-172781" target="_blank">audiences are taking longer than ever to watch TV shows</a> like the NBC comedy Superstore, which over four months of delayed viewing amassed a premiere 18-49 audience on par with The Voice&#39;s season premiere last fall. Delayed viewing is now &quot;the new normal,&quot; said Wurtzel, while live viewing &quot;is a choice, not a default. &hellip; This is a fundamental change in the way that people watch TV.&quot;</p>
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While Nielsen&#39;s estimates don&#39;t shed any light on the cord-cutting controversy&mdash;while some studies find that <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/infographic-more-americans-are-saying-goodbye-cords-and-cable-169148" target="_blank">cord-cutting is on the rise</a>, several of the largest cable operators <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/how-big-cable-stemming-cord-cutting-tide-169417" target="_blank">have actually been adding subscribers</a>&mdash;it does indicate that there will be a larger audience than ever, at least eventually, for television content as the new TV season begins.</p>
TelevisionAlan WurtzelCablecord cuttingNBCUniversalNetworksNielsenRatingsFri, 26 Aug 2016 16:24:07 +0000173157 at http://www.adweek.com